Thursday, 7 December 2017

Another Day of Shame as Ireland Joins PESCO

The Dáil has had another Day of Shame today reminiscent of a day in March 2003 when TDs voted to allow the United States to use Shannon civilian airport for George Bush to wage "Shock and Awe" terror against the people of Iraq.

On a Saturday before the war, 130,000 Irish people had marched in Dublin alone to prevent that war. But immediately, the Dáil abandoned all principle and all morality to give Bush his way. On that day, Bertie Ahern, the leader of Fianna Fáil. entered the hall of infamy by leading the charge to support the war in spite of Irish neutrality.

Today, with no war pending, the Fine Gael Government with the full support of Fianna Fáil (now in opposition) led the Dáil and voted to make Ireland a member of PESCO. This is the first sly step on the road to participation in a European army. The attempt is sly because the Government spokespersons keep repeating that Ireland has an opt-in opt-out clause that they cannot show us.

It is also a sly move because it has been enacted at a time when Irish media have pre-occupied themselves with the Brexit issue, especially the implications for the Irish border between North and South and the hold the DUP Members of Parliament have over Theresa May, the British Prime Minister.

We must now increase our defence spending from around €980 million to over €3 billion. This is at a time of a serious housing shortage that the Government is unable or unwilling to put right. Already this December (only seven days old) three homeless people have died on the streets, two in Dublin and one in Cork.

The EU can also dictate to us on matters of defence.

This time there were many notable speeches in the Dáil against the Government decision. Independent TDs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace and People for Profit's Richard Boyd Barrett were among the more convincing and sincere.

It was all to no avail. The Fianna Fáil Opposition who threatened to bring down the Government a week ago if the Minister for Justice did not resign, [she did resign] voted with the Government. And the result was inevitable.